Research Interests

I am broadly interested in the diversity of marine life: where it comes from, what keeps it ticking, and how diverse living organisms create the natural products and services that human lives and economies depend on. Understanding these issues involves answering questions about evolution like: How and why do new species arise? And questions about basic ecology such as: What factors determine whether and which species end up living together? How do the types of species present influence how ecosystems work, and the products and services they provide to us? Finally and most importantly, how can understanding these complex interactions inform our ability to live sustainably on a finite planet? We address such questions by integrating approaches from experimental ecology, phylogenetic comparative biology, and behavioral ecology, with good doses of taxonomy and quantitative modeling mixed in. Most of our research focuses on how marine animals use resources and interact, and the consequences of those interactions for populations, communities, and ecosystems. Some long-running research themes in my group include (1) studies of how biodiversity, food-web structure, and environmental change interact to affect ecosystem processes in seagrass beds, (2) how taxonomic and functional diversity influence ecosystem structure and function more broadly in the living world, and (3) systematic, ecological, and behavioral studies of the evolutionary radiation of symbiotic shrimp, including the only known marine eusocial animals, on Caribbean reefs. More recently we've begun exploring how to "put biodiversity to work", studying how wild algal communities might be used to clean up polluted waters and produce feedstock for sustainable biofuels.

Duffy, J.E. and K.S. Macdonald III. 2010. Kin structure, ecology, and the evolution of social organization in shrimp: A comparative analysis. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B Biological Sciences 277:575-584.

Douglass, J.G., K.E. France, J.P. Richardson, and J.E. Duffy. 2010. Seasonal and interannual change in a Chesapeake Bay eelgrass community: insights into biotic and abiotic control of community structure. Limnology and Oceanography. 55:1499-1520.

Ríos, R. and J.E. Duffy. 2007. A review of the sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp from Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, with description of Zuzalpheus, new genus, and six new species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Alpheidae). Zootaxa 1602:1-89.